French Bread

Okay. Today was pretty tiring.  We got up at 7:30 this morning, took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. We were there for about 2 hours, it was really fun and really pretty. I've decided that I really like structures built for world fairs (like the Space Needle and the Eiffel Tower). From there, we walked. And then found another metro station and rode to the Arc de Triomphe and the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, which is a huge shopping district. We didn't really have a lot of time there, we grabbed some food and went up the Arc de Triomphe and then we had to meet back up with the group.


The food that we got, though, was really good. We (we being my roommate Teresa and I) found a little sandwich shop (at my request) and had some yummy French sandwiches. We haven't really been eating a whole lot, so we probably would have thought anything was yummy. Food in France is not cheap....


After that we rode the metro over to the opera house and wandered around there. Then we rode the metro to Les Invalides (thankfully they gave us some metro tickets the first day, so we're not buying tickets every time). Les Invalides is a hospital for wounded soldiers in the middle of Paris, a place where they can live and mingle with Parisians. A big part of it has now been turned into offices or the army museum, but there's also a giant golden-domed room at the back, which houses Napoleon Bonaparte's ashes and his six coffins. After that we walked to a museum, which was full of boring scultures (like the Thinker) so my roommate and I went and took the metro back on our own because we were exhausted.


For dinner, we found a bakery where my roommate bought bread (she bought butter for it yesterday) and I bought a sandwich, and we were going to go back to a grocery store we found yesterday for some cheaper drinks, but it's Sunday and by that time it was 8:30, so they were closed. We had to go to McDonald's for drinks.  But it's really cool, because their fast-food restaurants have computers where you can place your order and then just go get it, or at this McDonald's there was a guy with a little hand-held register who came along the line and took your order, and then all you had to do was step up to the counter with your printed ticket and give them the amount you owe, and then they give you your food. It was very convenient.


Also, I just have to add this because it's important. European Coca-Cola is so much better than American Coca-Cola.  I don't usually like cola drinks but theirs actually tastes halfway decent. I was extremely happy to discover this. I hate the acidity of American Coca-Cola.


So I took a ton of pictures today (and at the request of Mr. Cory Blake, there are actually pictures with me in them) but I don't feel like uploading them tonight, and we're going more places tomorrow anyways, so they'll be easier to upload all at once.


Long post today, sorry. You don't have to read it. Just skip to this line. Oh wait, maybe I said that too late.... Oops.